Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Lost: "LA X" Recap

After 8 long months, LOST returned last night with a slow-burner, "LA X" that did exactly what a good first episode of the season traditionally does for the show: give you some big answers, but ultimately make you say, "Cheezits, I have no idea what's going on right now."

In fact, after Juliet slammed the rock on the nuke that resulted in what can only be explained as a white "kerfucken," the white turns to clouds, and the camera pulls back to mirror season 1's pilot episode:

Back to the Past: Remix

Just when we think we are seeing an echo, the plane doesn't crash. Welcome to the radical new world, or perhaps, "Parallel world." Lost has thus shifted back, then forward, and now to the side. I wasn't as confused as first because I thought that the show would shift to a reboot of some sort, but I thought it was a cop-out that Jack seemed to have no recollection (there goes 5 years of character development). Yet, I was surprised (and thankful) to find out via a new "swoosh" that Lost then shifted back to our current storyline progression, and more importantly, back to the current (2007) time. It does beg the question though, "What is the point of showing this parallel world?" It could be to:

Show a world where the Losties never crashed, yet are left spiritually (and physically in the case of Lock) unhealed and stunted of their redemptions because they do not go to the island.

Lock's legs

Charlie almost killing himself on the plane.

Kate still a fugitive, though still manages to escape.

Sun and Jin are still on the rocks, and Jin even gets detained. He should be after telling her to button up.

Show a world where the Losties never crashed, and live better lives without the Island's influences (because it is sunk, more in a moment).

Desmond seems pretty happy. Is it because in his time, the bomb went off and killed Widmore early? Even though he never knows Penny and has an epic love with Penny, he never knows the heartbreak of being almost completely separated for so long.

Sawyer too seems pretty upbeat, not at all like he just mistakenly killed someone in Australia.

Hurly is lucky rather than cursed.

Locke might get his legs fixed by Jack.

Show a new world that contains an infinite amount of changes both big and small, thanks to the ripple affects of the island not having influence over the world.

The island being sunk (circa-after new-Otherton is built). Did the nuke going off preempt the sinking? Or was it something entirely different in this timeline?

Desmond is on the plane, whereas Shannon is completely absent.

Jack still loses his father, though in a mysterious way.

Perhaps the point of this new timeline is to show that even if the island is sunken, all these characters are tied to one another by some destiny that they will still have to meet. It could be that we will be treated to an alternate reality that mirrors the known reality in that the characters still must be led to redemption. That, or because the Losties tried to subvert time, they ultimately created an alternate reality where they are doomed because there is no island.

Or, could it be that what we are watching is not an alternate reality, but an alternate past that has replaced the old past, but ultimately ties up and meets with the present to course-correct the timeline so that there is not a paradox. The big knock on this theory is that in the new timeline, the island is at the bottom of the ocean, so the castaways have no means to go to the island and initiate their jump back to 1977 and blow up the bomb in the first place. We have seen hoaxes before (the fake plane crash), so this is still up in the air.

So the noddle cooker is whether or not there are officially two different timelines running concurrently from the moment the bomb goes off.

Back to the Future: Remix?
In our present timeline, there was some pretty hefty revelations. Most notably:

Hurly (and maybe Miles) might be the only ones now able to commune with Jacob. This is probably a coup in the coming battle against Darth Locke, because the only 2 people who can talk to ghosts are on the castaways side.

"I'm sorry you had to see me like that." Darth Locke admits to being Smokey, as well as the man in black (MIB). The MIB thing was pretty obvious, but the fact that the MIB was smokey all along has some serious implications for those who want to comb the series for smokey-scenes and try and guess what exactly the MIB was trying to gain by his actions. We also learn that the ash creates a barrier that the MIB cannot cross, which makes you wonder whether or not the cabin in the jungle was really where Jacob lived and kept the MIB out, or whether the cabin was the MIB's spiritual prison. Perhaps when Locke and Ben travel there in season 4, they mistakenly break the seal and sow the seeds for the MIB to take corporeal form in Jacob's potential champion, Locke. The monster has had alot of contact with Locke throughout the series before Locke's death, so it makes you wonder whether or not the MIB had chosen Locke from the beginning as his future avatar because he represented his biggest threat.

The healing waters at the temple turn the color of defecation after the death of Jacob. Even still, Sayid is resurrected, with missing memories and perhaps more (if you believe the Other's claims that there are some side effects). Could it be that Sayid is now permanently attached to the island?

Richard and the MIB are old friends (not).

Whatever the entity the MIB is, its only wish is to go home. Where that "home" actually is may hold the key to unlocking the true nature of Jacob/MIB and the island itself. It is clear by the Other's reaction to Jacob's demise, that shit is about to go down. Now that the natives' God has been slain, could we be headed toward some island-apocalyptic moment (that leads to it sinking? TRIPPY). Other than the means the MIB must take to achieve his goal, this timeline seems pretty cut and dry in that the castaways, and more specifically Jack, will have to defend against his onslaught.